Who I Am Top
Hey, I'm Hack, a rank 1 player that plays the assassin role for team Basilisk, a top 5 oceanic team and I'm here today to give you insight on the way that I play Jaina.
I have 253 games played as Jaina and boast a win rate of over 70%, a majority of it solo or duo. She is by far my most played and most comfortable hero.
Why Pick Jaina? Top
Because she goes 0-100 real quick.
Seriously though Jaina is currently the best burst mage and outputs enough consistent damage to warrant a first pick on all maps. Jaina OP bruh.
Talents Top
Level 1-
For level 1 I take
Deep Chill, this is by far the most useful of the 4 level 1 talents as it allows you to run people down, peel or disengage and set up your combo much easier.
Level 4-
For level 4 take either
Arcane Intellect or
Snowstorm, this talent pick is very 50/50 and it comes down to personal preference. If you are new to Jaina I would take Snowstorm as it lets you hit both waves of your Blizzard much easier, but for experienced Jaina players you can and should swap it out for Arcane Intellect, this allows you to teamfight for longer, lets you push more waves without going OOM to give more map pressure and allows you to cast your spells much more freely in general.
KEEP IN MIND if you do decide to take Arcane Intellect you need to make the most of it! You don't get any mana back if you miss or if you dont cast at all so quickly pushing a creep wave for mana before an objective can make a big difference in the outcome of the oncoming fight.
NOTE: If the enemy team has multiple high priority kill targets you may want to take Snowstorm anyway to try and hit them all at once in a teamfight (against good players they will be split anyway so this probably wont happen, although getting a combo on the full team will win you a teamfight hard and potentially win you the game).
Level 7-
Frostbitten. 15% Extra damage to your passive is simply too much damage to pass up as a burst mage.
I see some people taking Frost Armour to help deal with Zeratul and Illidan that I listed as your hardest match-ups but I firmly believe that it is a 100% skill match-up, so by out-playing them and getting the extra damaging talent rather than relying on a defensive one you have more potential to delete the entire enemy team. Extra damage = extra pick potential = extra teamfight presence = extra zone control = extra carry potential = better hero. (in my opinion)
Level 10-
Summon Water Elemental. This is by far the better ultimate as it sets up your combo and has insane damage and utility value if left alive in a teamfight and Ring of Frost is far too unreliable.
NOTE: Once you have this ability you can potentially pick off anybody on the enemy team, so don't let those rascally over-extenders get away with it!
Level 13-
Improved Ice Block. I feel that this skill is sooooooooooo good on Jaina you would be crazy not to take it, this will make sense when I explain it in more depth later on in the guide. I have tried out the other two talents but neither of them seem to have as much impact as Ice Block.
Level 16-
There are two viable talents on this tier that can both be really strong in different team comps.
Northern Exposure-
This is the talent I pick 99% of the time as it gives your combo an extra 15% damage, which at late game is huge. It also amplifies your teams damage to the targets hit by it by 15%, and since you should hitting at least 3+ people with it in a good engage this makes a big difference in the fight.
Numbing Blast-
This is good for setting up your teams AOE if you have an AOE comp, but it sacrifices a lot of potential damage. The only time I take this talent is if I have a Zagara and/or a Kael'thas as you can set up really nice Maws or Flame Strikes by using bolt of the storm into water elemental into Cone of Cold.
NOTE: This is also nice for peeling back but I find the 1 second against most divers doesn't do as much as the damage amp.
Level 20-
For level 20 I ALWAYS take
Bolt of the Storm, this talent is simply too good to pass up. Bolt allows you to set up massive engages, get easy picks, makes you a very slippery target and gives you sooooooooo much pressure on the enemy back line in a fight.
Your Damage Combos Top
So for early game (pre 10) it is usually W>E>Q as W has the longest cast range and sets up your combo better.
If you run into somebody and are at close range I sometimes open with my E as it allows the rest of my combo to hit easier, although this does the lowest damage.
Your highest damage rotation pre 10 is Q>W>E but this can be hard to land.
If the enemy if running around mounted you should open with your E as it is instant making it an easy dismount and slow.
Post 10 you if you are comboing in a teamfight always open with ulti.
Combo is R>W>E>Q (casting W before E lets them land at almost the same time, causing more bust and making it harder to react)
With level 20 and Bolt of the Storm you want to Bolt>R>W>E>Q>Ice Block to initiate a fight (only do this if your team will follow you up) This is why I believe that
Improved Ice Block is a must take on Jaina, as without it you need to play like a scared little mage rather than the fearsome assassin you are.
The Early Game Top
So in the early game you are really vulnerable to ganks if you lane so I typically just hard wave clear and roam. This makes you harder to kill because you are only in lane for a short amount of time, leaving a really small window of opportunity for your opponent.
If you are laning vs a weak laner you have a lot of kill potential through poke & running people down after your combo.
Ideally your team will lane for you and you can roam freely, doing this you should be constantly moving lane to lane applying pressure and taking kills where you can. MAKE SURE that you hard shove the wave after ganking a lane, this just takes one combo and will really help your team out.
Level 10 Top
Once you reach level 10 your goal is to get as many picks as possible, at this point not many heroes can 1v1 you.
Play similarly to how you do pre 10, just a lot more aggressive, but be careful you still don't have any escape other than your slows.
At this point DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ULTI! It has a short cooldown and making picks is your job!
Late Game/Teamfighting Top
Okay so its time to hard carry some teamfights. This is where you have to ask yourself, can I absolutely rekt their back line? The answer is normally yes.
If yes:
Your role is to flank. Sit off to the side and poke around with your skills, make sure not to get caught and keep your main cooldowns up (W, E and R) unless you see a really good opportunity to use them for harass.
The enemy done goof'd and stacked their squishies on the same spot? REKT EM! Walk in from the side and put your full combo down on them. Simply walk in from the side, R>W>E>Q and watch their faces melt, don't forget to auto attack as Jaina too as maximizing your damage is very important!
Assuming you slowed them all, possibly killed a few, and at least chunked the enemies health bars substantially your team should be pushing on through and the rest should just be a clean up job.
NOTE: It is VERY crucial that you use your Water Elemental to its maximum value, so keep controlling it in the teamfight by pressing R on where you want it to move or who you want it to target. This will allow you to keep the whole team slowed safely and put out a lot of damage, DON'T LET IT AFK FARM CREEPS!!
If the enemy survives this then you can always just ice block and blink out, assuming you didn't use blink to get into range to set up the combo in the first place.
NOTE: Don't be afraid to blink into the fight to set up a good initiation/combo once you are more confident on Jaina, just know your limits. I do this all the time and the blink can really catch people off guard and carry a game. Don't be that guy that blinks into a stun chain and dies.
If no:
If the enemy back line is too tanky for you to combo down or they have a tank stacked team or something just play as a kiter. Sometimes it is still best to go in and try to 1bang their healer but it is a big risk vs a tanky lineup as your damage threat wont save you.
When kiting you want to play behind your front line at almost all times. Just sit behind them and rotate your spell combos, if you see somebody get overconfident and extend too far drop that ulti, burst them with what you have off cooldown and make them regret not respecting your damage and chase potential.
The cleanup:
Jaina excels at punishing the enemy for bad engages as you often slow the entire enemy team by 35%.
Once you start winning a teamfight make sure you push up and get as much as you can, once you get 1-2 kills you can often get 1-2 more just by running them down as they scatter. NOTE: Don't be overly greedy, but don't be scared, know your limits.
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